m

Lecture 2: Types of Report

 

|  formative Report
| Expla atory Report
| Discussive Report
| Persuasive Report

Note: Co te t for the above topics will be provided i the

ha dout.

Lecture 2: Types of Report

 

TYPES OF TECHNICAL
REPORTS

Lecture 2: Types of Report

Types of Technical Reports
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| Discuss the practicality, a d possibly the suitability a d
compatibility of a give project, both i physical a d
eco omic terms.

| They also discuss the desirability of the proposed project

from the viewpoi t of those who would be affected by it.

| This is formal docume t for ma ageme t use, briefly

e ough a d sufficie tly o tech ical to be
u dersta dable by high level ma ageme t

| The feasibility study ca be defi ed as the prelimi ary

study that is bei g co ducted to exami e whether a
certai project is capable of bei g do e i a practical a d
useful way.
 

 

|  a other words i a efficie t a d effective way, a d the

outcome of this study helps i the decisio whether to
proceed with the project or ot.

| f we exami e from a other a gle there is a other

objective behi d the feasibility study a d i.e. what
possible problems that ca occur duri g the project a d
based o this a alysis some best possible alter ative
solutio s are desig ed a d recomme datio o the best
alter ative solutio is also formed.

| The feasibility report a swers the questio "Should we

impleme t Pla X?" by stati g "yes," " o," but more ofte
"maybe." Not o ly does it give a recomme datio , it also
provides the data a d the reaso i g behi d that
recomme datio
 

 

|
ou must be u biased a d your approach must be logical.
Be sure that you k ow the precise  
of the
proposed project a d also its  

| Report writers must come to a ë
ë
a d must

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 that some actio is take or is ot take

a dor that some choice is adopted or is rejected.
The primary objective of feasibility report
is to inform about the following matters.
m. What the proposed system will achieve.
2. Who will be i volved i operati g the proposed
system i the orga izatio ?
3. The be efits that system will give.
4. The orga izatio al cha ges eeds for its
successful impleme tatio .
5. The estimated cost of the system.

All these are give i tech ical a d simple la guage a d

the begi i g of the report as a executive summary. t is
followed by the detail feasibility report .
. Recommendation report

| A  ë

 
report compares two or more

alter atives a d recomme ds o e (or, if
ecessary, o e).

| This type starts from a stated eed, a selectio

of choices, or both a d the recomme ds o e,
some, or o e.
 `td..Recommendation report
|

#$
| a compa y might be looki g at grammar-checki g
software a d wa t a recomme datio o which product
is the best. As the report writer o this project, you
could study the market for this type of applicatio a d
recomme d o e particular product, a couple of
products (differi g perhaps i their stre gths a d their
weak esses), or o e (maybe o e of them are a y
good). The recomme datio report a swers the
questio "Which optio should we choose?" (or i
some cases "Which are the best optio s?) by
recomme di g Product B, or maybe both Products B
a d C, or o e of the products.
©easibility report Vs Recommendation
report
| ©or example
| A college might i vestigate the feasibility of givi g every
stude t a e-mail address a d putti g ma y of the college
fu ctio s o li e.
| The same college might also seek recomme datio s o
the best hardware a d software to use (after the feasibility
report had determi ed it was a good idea).
|  practice, however, it's hard to keep these two ki ds of
reports disti ct.
| Eleme ts of the feasibility a d recomme datio report
i termi gle i specific reports²but the mai thi g is to get
the job do e!
. Evaluation report
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| The disti ctio s amo g three report types are rather

fi e; a d they overlap.
|  real-world writi g, these types ofte combi e--you
might see eleme ts of the recomme datio report
combi e with the feasibility report, for example. Of
course, the writers of these reports do 't care which
type they are writi g--a d well they should 't!
They're tryi g to get a job do e.
Typical `ontents of the Feasibility/
Recommendation Report

|  troductio
| Tech ical Backgrou d
| Backgrou d o the Situatio
| Requireme ts a d Criteria
| Discussio of the Optio s
| Category-by-Category Compariso s
| Co clusio s
| Recomme datio or ©i al Opi io
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ntroduction
|  the i troductio , i dicate that the docume t is a
feasibility report & state its purpose. Also, provide
a overview of the co te ts of the report.
| ©or some feasibility reports, you'll also be able to
discuss the situatio a d the requireme ts i the
i troductio s.
| f there is little to say about them, you ca merge
them with the i troductio , or make the
i troductio two paragraphs lo g.
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Technical Background
| Some feasibility reports may require some tech ical
discussio i order to make the rest of the report
mea i gful to readers.
| The dilemma with this ki d of i formatio is whether to put
it i a sectio of its ow or to fit it i to the compariso
sectio s where it is releva t.
| ©or example, a discussio of power a d speed of laptop
computers is goi g to ecessitate some discussio of
RAM, megahertz, a d processors. Should you put that i a
sectio that compares the laptops accordi g to power a d
speed? Should you keep the compariso eat a d clea ,
limited strictly to the compariso a d the co clusio ?
| Maybe all the tech ical backgrou d ca be pitched i its
ow sectio ²either toward the fro t of the report or i a
appe dix.
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Background on the Situation

| ©or ma y feasibility reports, you'll eed to discuss the
problem, eed, or opportu ity that has brought about
this report. f there is little that eeds to be said about
it, this i formatio ca go i the i troductio .
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Requirements and `riteria

| A critical part of feasibility a d recomme datio
reports is the discussio of the requireme ts you'll
use to reach the fi al decisio or recomme datio .
| f you're tryi g to recomme d a laptop computer
for use by employees, there are likely to be
requireme ts co cer i g size, cost, hard-disk
storage, display quality, durability, a d battery
fu ctio . What it would be expected to accomplish,
problems that it would have to avoid, a d so o .
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uiscussion of the Options

|  certai ki ds of feasibility or recomme datio reports,
you'll eed to explai how you arrowed the field of
choices dow to the o es your report focuses o .
| Additio ally, you may eed to provide brief descriptio s
of the optio s themselves.
| Do 't get this mixed up with the compariso that comes
up i the ext sectio .
|  this sectio , you provide a ge eral discussio of the
optio s so that readers will k ow somethi g about them.
| The discussio at this stage is ot comparative. t's just a
ge eral orie tatio to the optio s.
|  the laptops example, you might wa t to give some
brief, ge eral specificatio s o each model about to be
compared.
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`ategory-by-`ategory `omparisons
| O e of the most importa t parts of a feasibility or recomme datio
report is the compariso of the optio s.
| Remember that you i clude this sectio so that readers ca check your
thi ki g a d come up with differe t co clusio s if they desire.
| This should be ha dled category by category, rather tha optio by
optio . f you were compari g laptops, you'd have a sectio that
compared them o cost, a other sectio that compared them o
battery fu ctio , a d so o .
|
ou R 
 have a sectio that discussed everythi g about optio A,
a other that discussed everythi g about optio B, a d so o .
| That would ot be effective at all, because the compariso s must still
be made somewhere.
| (See below for a schematic illustratio of these two approaches to
compariso s.)
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`onclusions
| The co clusio s sectio of a feasibility or
recomme datio report is i part a summary or
restateme t of the co clusio s you have already
reached i the compariso sectio s.
|  this sectio , you restate the i dividual co clusio s,
for example, which model had the best price, which
had the best battery fu ctio , a d so o .
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Recommendation or ©inal Opinion

| The fi al sectio of feasibility a d recomme datio
reports states the recomme datio .
| remember that some readers may skip right to the
recomme datio sectio a d bypass all your hard work!
| The recomme datio sectio should echo the most
importa t co clusio s leadi g to the recomme datio
a d the state the recomme datio emphatically.
| Ordi arily, you may eed to recomme d several optio s
based o differe t possibilities.

|  a evaluatio report, this fi al sectio would state a

fi al opi io or judgeme t.
|
es, the free-bus-tra sportatio program was successful, or at
least it was, based o its i itial expectatio s. No, it was a
miserable flop²it lived up to o e of its mi imal requireme ts.
Revision `hecklist for ©easibility and
Recommendation Reports

As you reread a d revise your feasibility  recomme datio

report, watch out for problems such as the followi g:

A Write a good i troductio i which you i dicate the

situatio a d the audie ce a d provide a overview of
the co te ts.
A State requireme ts--those factors that i flue ce the
decisio or the choice of optio s. (A d remember to state
how importa t requireme ts are i relatio to each other.)
A  dicate how the field of optio s was arrowed to the
o es bei g compared.
A Orga ize the compariso of the optio s usi g the poi t-
by-poi t approach. Do 't use the whole-to-whole
approach.
A At the e d of each comparative sectio , state the best
choice i terms that poi t of compariso .
A  clude a summary table, if possible, i which you
summarize all the key data i table form.
A Provide tech ical backgrou d, if ecessary for
u dersta di g the comparative discussio .
A Discuss the backgrou d o the problem or opportu ity--
what brought about the eed for the report.
A  clude a co clusio s sectio where you restate all the
key co clusio s from the compariso sectio .
A State seco dary co clusio s i the co clusio s sectio --
a d based them o requireme ts that you state i the
requireme ts sectio of the report.
A State a fi al co clusio i the co clusio s sectio --o e
that states which is the best choice.
A  clude a recomme datio sectio where you make the
recomme datio . Briefly me tio the key factors
i flue ci g the recomme datio .
--------------------------
x. Technical Background Reports
| The backgrou d report is the hardest to defi e but the
most commo ly writte .
| This type of tech ical report provides backgrou d o a
topic--for example, solar e ergy, global warmi g, CD-
ROM tech ology, a medical problem, or U.S. recycli g
activity .
| However, the i formatio o the topic is ot just for
a ybody who might be i terested i the topic, but for
some i dividual or group that has specific eeds for it
a d is eve willi g to pay for that i formatio .
| ©or example
| imagi e a e gi eeri g firm biddi g o a portio of the work to
build a hemodialysis cli ic. The e gi eers eed to k ow ge eral
k owledge about re al disease a d the tech ologies used to treat
it, but they do 't wa t to have to go diggi g i the library to fi d it.
What they eed is a tech ical backgrou d report o the subject.
Ô. Primary Research Reports
| O
  ë   is our ame for that ki d of report that prese ts
origi al research data-- o matter whether that data was ge erated i a
laboratory or out i the "field.³
| A  ë
  ë   the would be a report that prese ts i formatio
gai ed largely from pri ted i formatio sources or from other sources such as
people.
|
ou're probably already familiar with this type of report as
the "lab report."
| The co te ts a d orga izatio of this type of report have a
basic logic: you prese t your data a d co clusio s, but
also prese t i formatio o how you we t about the
experime t or survey.
|  other words, you e able the reader to    your
experime t, or at least, visualize quite specifically how you
we t about it.
ë. Business Prospectuses  Plans
| A busi ess prospectus is very much like a
proposal, except for at least o e big differe ce.
The prospectus seeks to start a ew busi ess or
sig ifica tly expa d a existi g busi ess.
| A proposal, o the other ha d, seeks approval to
do a specific project.
| ©or example,
| a busi ess prospectus might seek fu di g a d other
support to start a software compa y to create computer
games. A proposal, o the other ha d, might bid to do the
developme t work for some specific computer game.
. Technical Specifications
| Specificatio s are descriptio s of products or product
requireme ts.
| More broadly, they ca provide details for the desig ,
ma ufacture, testi g, i stallatio , a d use of a product.
|
ou typically see specificatio s i the docume tatio that
comes i the package with certai ki ds of products, for
example, CD players or computers.
| These describe the key tech ical characteristics of the
item. But specificatio s are also writte as a way of
"specifyi g" the co structio a d operatio al
characteristics of a thi g. They are the used by people
who actually co struct the thi g or go out a d attempt to
purchase it.
| Whe you write specificatio s, accuracy, precisio of
detail, a d clarity are critical.
| Poorly writte specificatio s ca cause a ra ge of
problems a d lead to lawsuits.
†. Organizational policies and procedures
| — These are the operati g docume ts for
orga izatio s; they co tai rules a d regulatio s o
how the orga izatio a d its members are expected to
perform. Policies a d procedures are like i structio s,
but they go much further.

 Look for the example reports o O



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